Should Smashing Pumpkins Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Billy Corgan Sure Thinks So

“If it’s a meritocracy, I think my band belongs in there because we were one of the prime bands of our era and we continue to be a top band,” Corgan told Rolling Stone. “Next year will be, technically, our 30th year. So the fact that I’ve been in this band, you know, essentially 25 of the last 30 years, I think that says something.”

In order to be inducted into the Cleveland institution, artists must have released their first single or album at least 25 years ago. The Pumpkins were eligible for the first time this past induction cycle, however, they didn’t make the 2016 nominations this past October let alone receive the honor of being a first-ballot inductee like Nirvana and Green Day before them. Corgan’s take is similar to that of many fans disenchanted with the Rock Hall’s selections:

Whole genres of music get overlooked and people don't get put in because somebody's mad at somebody from 30 years ago. I'm only speaking as a fan, but it's hard to trust the institution as a meritocracy when you have people in there who weren't very influential, didn’t sell a lot of records but because somebody somewhere was a fan, they're in. And then you have other people who were hugely influential and they go, "Well, you know…"

And even if the Smashing Pumpkins are inducted in the coming years, Corgan can’t promise he’ll be up for the ceremony or reuniting with estranged former bandmates James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky. “What if I say I will come and then 17 years later, when I’m in a wheelchair, they finally bring me in? I don’t f---ing know,” he said.